New Hampshire“The only time you should ever look back is to see how far you’ve come.” – Anonymous

​July 17, 2016The summer has proven once again to be Tony’s hot time of the year. The past few weeks have been great for the 14 team, with a major confidence boost coming with them. Going into New Hampshire, the team was hoping to keep the hot streak going.

Tony started out the weekend pretty average with work needing to be done on the car during practice. Qualifying went well with the team advancing to the final round and a final starting position of 12th. This allowed Tony not to have to fight for track position right from the start. The team had their ups and downs though, falling back to the mid 20s at some points.

Eventually after getting some things figured out with the car and some great work on pit road, Tony was back up to cracking the top ten. With some lucky cautions falling, Tony took advantage of restarts and climbed up to the top 5. He fought hard catching Joey Logano to take over the second spot in the field. Sadly, Tony didn’t have enough time to catch up to eventual winner Matt Kenseth, but today was a day to be proud of.

The team continued the strong streak they were hoping to keep up. Tony created some major distance between him and 31st place in the standings to further secure his Chase position. Overall, it would be easy at this point for the team to get spooked by the bad luck of the past. But as long as they continue to choose to move forward by learning from the past, over the next 4 months, Tony is looking to be a championship contender.

Kentucky“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

July 9, 2016Once again, we have come upon another track Tony is waving goodbye to, Kentucky Speedway. Due to Kentucky only being on the schedule the past few years, this is one of only two tracks on the circuit Tony hasn’t won on. Kentucky also eluded last year’s retiree, Jeff Gordon.

Tony was hoping to check this one off the list. This race was also a major milestone for Tony – his 600th start.

The weekend started out wet with just about everything being rained out, including qualifying which didn’t give Tony the best starting spot because of the missed races at the beginning of the season due to his broken back. The team started 22nd based on owner’s points but were looking to move up significantly through the race.

The race was relatively uneventful for the team but things started to get dicey at the end. It was quickly understood by the field that this was going to be a fuel mileage game, which the 14 team was on top of. Tony was running 12th and in the last segment of the race, he managed to save enough fuel and claim a top 5 finish in 5th place. This became another showing that strategy is a strength of this 14 team that they will be able to carry into the Chase.

Sure, this wasn’t the win that Tony so desperately wanted to check off his list but a top 5 is still pretty victorious in itself. This top 5 finish also ensured Tony would have a top 5 on every track he has raced on in Cup which is a feat not many hold. Overall, despite some dreary weather, the outcome of Kentucky was still a pretty bright one.

Daytona“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” – Joyce Meyer

July 2, 2016This past fourth of July weekend marked more than America’s 240th birthday, it also marked Tony’s last green flag at Daytona. Daytona has been very good to Tony, with 19 wins to his name, that he hoped to make an even 20.

The weekend sadly didn’t go as well as the previous week in Sonoma went. Hopes of a back to back win faded near the end of the race Saturday night. Tony decided to take a conservative route and stayed near the back of the pack. This worked great to protect the car.

Nearing the last quarter of the race, Tony and his team plotted their move by not taking tires on one of the last pit stops of the day. This cycled Tony up to the top 5 and put him in prime position to take a win home. Sadly, just laps after the stop and some great racing, Tony lost control, overcorrected and the car met the wall hard. This wasn’t too much to repair though and the team ran till the end.

Luckily on a bright side though, due to the many cars out prior to Tony’s wreck, he still walked away with a 26th place finish, enough to gain points and take over the 30th place position in the point standings. This has Tony in a Chase position now, and all should only go up from here.

More Than a Win“When you feel like quitting, think about why you started.”

June 26, 2016Fourteen years ago I came into this sport blind. I was an innocent young child who had nothing but love for those who I trusted in this world. Luckily, that innocence transcended into my love for this sport and I think has made my fanships a powerful force in my life. One of the few people I trusted in those younger years was Tony. He was a source of pure happiness in my life that could fix anything - any stress I had, sadness that invaded my life and made my joys more joyous. In recent years, their hasn’t been much joy to be had. Injuries and unfathomable emotional struggles have riddled the years. I missed MY Tony. The witty, funny, invested teddy bear that I have looked up to for so long. After almost four long years, Sonoma brought that Tony back to me.

The weekend didn’t start off too peachy for the 14 team. Frustrations with the car and a couple drivers getting in the way of improvements hindered the team moving forward. Tony voiced his frustrations, even going as far as expressing his loss of interest for the Sprint Cup series that has led to his decision to step away after 2016. The team put together a solid qualifying effort cracking the top 10, which is incredibly strong for Tony in comparison to his average qualifying positions. Hope was high for Tony to do well this weekend following a strong performance in Michigan before the off week and with Sonoma being one of his best tracks. He was being picked as a winner by many. After some team bonding at Six Flags the night before the race, Tony and the 14 crew woke up Sunday morning with motivation and hope that the strong day others had predicted would happen and would not be plagued by bad luck.

The race started with Tony gaining a few spots and holding a place in the top ten most of the day. Once pit stops rolled around though, Tony got caught back in traffic and was trapped at the midpoint of the race. They couldn’t shake sitting right outside the top 15 for the mid and later parts of the race. Mike Bugarewicz then decided to propose pit strategy that Tony agreed with. They would have to use pit road to get any track position back, so they decided to break the pit sequence of everyone else and pitted early, praying for a caution. For the first time in years, Tony can say he had luck. Just one lap back out on track after the team’s pit stop, caution flew for some debris that came off Jimmie Johnson’s car. This cycled Tony up to first place, landing him in a golden position to pull off a great finish. Holding off the field was going to be a challenge though.

Tony’s restarts were on point. Tony managed to hold off the field on each restart he faced and gained space between him and the field at points, as well. The last 20 laps were simply nail biters. I, along with Tony’s other fans, just counted down each turn praying for a miracle. After so many races and so many years of being so far off the mark because of so many different issues, success was almost a forgotten feeling to us. The white flag finally flew with Tony still holding the lead, yet Denny Hamlin was right behind him ready to make his move. We came down to Turn 7 and Hamlin made his move. Denny squeezed past after Tony made an error in entry. Luckily, as the two came into Turn 11, Hamlin lost his line and Tony sneaked inside of him, leading them to a close door banging fight for the win that Tony came out on top of. Tony cleared Hamlin and crossed the finish line.

FINALLY.

Over three years of waiting finally came to an end. All the tears, sleepless nights, stress and fear came to a head and finally felt like they added up to something. Tony and his team were ecstatic, with Tony’s family there as well to add some tears to the mix.

It's easy when you come into this sport thinking you are just going to have fun along the way. You will enjoy some races, meet a couple of friends and then go back to your normal life at the end of the day. This couldn’t be further from the case for some of us. It could just be me but this sport has become a part of my being and my drivers encompass a very important and large part of my life. I put as much heart in as they do I feel at times. When they are down, I am down. I want to do anything I can to pull them back up because I believe in them so much. This has been a constant fight for Tony the past few years. I have just hoped and prayed for something to happen to bring that smile to his face that made me stick with him years ago. There is no one in this world I feel is more deserving of happiness than the man who has unknowingly brought so much happiness and joy into my life for years. To see that in Sonoma was priceless. Seeing Tony do burnouts and pull into Victory Lane to get a hug from his mom and dad was glorious. His eyes red from emotion, a smile from ear to ear and what seemed to be an exhaustion caused by pure relief and weight being lifted from his shoulders of the demons that have followed him since 2013.

Sunday was a magnificent day for those of us who have stood by his side through the thick events of the past few years with a cherry on top of a wonderful career if this happens to be the last time Tony pulls into Victory Lane. My gut tells me it's not but it will be a wonderful one to end on if that is the case.

June 12, 2016Michigan was a special weekend. NASCAR had announced that they were going all out with this track package and Tony couldn’t have been more excited. The style of race car and the intense action that was expected was right up Tony’s alley.

The weekend started off well with strong practices and a season best start of 3rd, a huge accomplishment for the team. This put the team in prime position to perfect the car, versus having to play catch up and find track position all day.

Race day provided the breakthrough the team has been working for all season long. Tony ran strong and consistent all day, only landing outside of the top ten once during the day with plenty of time in the top 5. Tony faced a couple of issues with the car late, but Bugarewicz managed to keep them under control. Late in the race when they fell off, they climbed right back up to compete at the end. This weekend was a much needed confidence boost for the team and showed they have the capability to run up front and compete.

With Sonoma ahead, we can only expect for Tony to get better and possibly pull off a win following a much needed week off for the teams.​

June 6, 2016After riding a rough wave of races, finishes and luck, the 14 team was hoping a nice trip to the Poconos would enlighten their tough season. The weekend started off fabulous, with a 6th place starting position for Tony, which is a huge highlight for him since high qualifying spots aren’t always his strongest area, he openly admits. The weekend was showing all the signs of a turnaround, with the qualifying run and a great start to the race.

Tony stayed in the top ten for the whole time he was running with the car improving as the laps ticked away. Shortly before lap 100 though, the bad luck struck once again. In classic Pocono fashion, the grove bottlenecked and Tony was on the bad end of it. To make matters worse, when Tony got loose, he accidentally took out teammate Danica Patrick in the process.

After a long afternoon in the garage and a clean bill of health given at the in field care center, Tony did return to the track to finish the race, a disappointing 39th place finish, when a top ten was on the horizon. Bad luck can only last so long, eventually this has to end.

May 29, 2016Memorial Day weekend holds a crown jewel in NASCAR, the Coca-Cola 600. This is another race that has alluded Tony in his long career and he was going to take one final crack at it in his retirement season.

Tony qualified 21st, which is about his average qualifying position in the series and at the track. After an unapproved adjustment to the car pre race, the 14 team got pushed back to starting 39th, handing them a tougher task to get Tony a 600 win for his mantel. Tony managed to significantly improve his position quickly but once the field ended up stringing out, moving up wasn’t as easy. The lack of cautions in the race caused track position to not be easily attained, stunting Tony’s growth in the race.

This lack of cautions caused the team to fall further and further behind the dominant lead of Martin Truex Jr. By the half way point, Tony was multiple laps down yet tried to stay confident that they could salvage something from the day. Lack of cautions to pull the field back together landed Tony a 24th place finish. It could have been much worse than it was but it definitely wasn’t the finish the team was aiming for in Tony’s last Coca-Cola 600.

May 21, 2016 All-Star weekend is always a great week for teams. They are home, get to sleep in their own beds each night and the pressure of points is off the shoulders of teams and drivers. It is all about cash and pride this weekend and the #14 team felt confident in what they were bringing to the track. Minus the dismal weekend in Dover which wasn’t the team’s fault, they knew they were meshing well as a team and this was another weekend to polish it off.

Sadly, they caught another whiff of bad luck from Dover. In the second segment of the race when rookie Chase Elliott was attempting to make a pit stop he accidentally bottlenecked some of the field and caused a wreck that Tony was sadly collected in. Tony’s back wasn’t aggravated by the wreck but his emotions were another story.

With the recent inclusion of the Drivers Council in NASCAR, the opinions of those in the sport have become more influential. According to multiple drivers, Brad Keselowski came up with the format that was used for the All-Star race this year that confused many, including myself and Tony. At one point, this landed Tony a lap down, for a reason no one seemed to understand. Unlike many past All-Star races, most drivers were happy to leave this format behind and move forward on to Memorial Day weekend and the traditional Coca Cola 600.​Follow and chat with me here: @ReadySetRace_14

Image courtesy: SHR

Just a Bump, Not a Roadblock – Dover

May 15, 2016 After multiple successful runs on the way back to the top in the Cup series we hit a roadblock at the site of Tony’s last win, Dover. Ever since 2013, I have gone into every Dover weekend with an extra pep in my step because that is the last time I saw Tony in Victory Lane. Since the 2013 win though, things just haven’t been the same there.

This year was no different. Tony started back in 34th, which is a struggle again since Dover is a shorter track. This didn’t hurt the optimism of the team or fans though. The race started with some great hope in the beginning with Tony making his way up to the top 15. Things went down from there. Tony’s bad luck seemed to come back and bite him, landing him with a broken track bar in this race.

Tony took a pretty hard hit from this but luckily he faced no issues with getting out of the car and he said his back was fine. This landed the team with a 34th place finish as well. This wasn’t what the team was looking for again but they knew that it was just bad luck getting the best of them. The All-Star race was up next, so they could go all out without the pressure of points getting to them.

May 14, 2016Tony Stewart is back on track in his No.14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro/Code3 Chevy. Tony will retire at the end of this year after 17 seasons in NASCAR. However, his retirement tour was delayed due to surgery for a burst vertebrae fracture he sustained while riding sand dunes in California on January 31.

Tony made the announcement on Twitter Thursday, April 21, that after missing the first eight races of the season his doctors had cleared him to race again. To everyone's surprise Tony wasted no time getting back in the car. He would race at Richmond in just 2 days. NASCAR had also granted him a waiver citing he would be eligible for the Chase if he met the criteria.

I've been on the sidelines long enough”--Tony Stewart.

The same day Tony announced his return to racing, NASCAR would announce that Tony was being fined $35,000 for comments he made on the previous Wednesday. He broke the rule “disparaging the sport and/or NASCAR leadership”. Basically, NASCAR stated that Tony criticized the sanctioning bodies' ‘lug nut policy’’. NASCAR decided last fall that the teams would now be self-policing the number of lug nuts tightened on the cars during pit stops. With many of the team's only tightening two or three lug nuts, Tony expressed his safety concerns for the drivers and spectators. The following Monday after Tony's comments, NASCAR changed the policy back stating all five lug nuts must be installed securely on the cars. However, Tony still had to pay the fine.

“It wasn't saying they're not doing their job. I feel like they dropped the ball on this one thing.” --Tony Stewart

Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon had been splitting the driving duties in the No.14. Both of the drivers did a great job filling in, but Smoke was back feeling better than ever. Tony started 18th in the Mobil 1 Chevy at Richmond after qualifying was cancelled due to rain. Tony was having a solid day running in the top-20. He came over his radio apologizing to his team on lap 145 for going one lap down. But also added he was having ‘a lot of fun’. Tony was happy to be back in the car and his comments over the radio throughout the race were quite entertaining. Tony cut a left rear tire on lap 268 after making contact with Logano which sent him for a spin. Mike Bugarewicz brought him down pit road to make repairs. Tony received the free pass and got back on the lead lap and finished 19th. A good day for Smoke.

“Line them up again and let's run another, hell make it 800 laps!”--Tony Stewart @ Richmond

Next up, Talladega. Due to the dangers of restrictor plate racing, Tony promised the doctors he would get out of the car at the first caution. Tony and Ty Dillon would split the driving duties both driving the car in each practice session. Ty Dillon qualified the Bass Pro Shops Chevy earning a 14th starting position, however due to the driver change, Tony would start at the rear of the field. Tony went a lap down during the first green flag pit stop due to a speeding penalty. Tony was able to get the wave around during the caution on lap 53 and get back on the lead lap. The driver switch took place during this caution and Ty Dillon would restart the race in 33rd. Tony was visibly disappointed about exiting the car saying that ‘it sucked’.

However, later in the day Tony tweeted that the doctors were right about getting out of the car. I think we all breathed a sigh of relief he got out of the car. Talladega was one of the wildest, intense races we've seen in quite awhile. Ty Dillon was able to survive the chaos and mayhem and finish an impressive 6th place.

Next stop on the retirement tour was Kansas Speedway. There would be no relief driver. Tony was in the car for the long haul. Tony qualified the car 26th on Friday. He struggled with a tight race car and dropped to the 20th position by lap 75. At the halfway point the car was getting better, but with about 150 laps complete Tony began to feel a vibration. During green flag pit stops on lap 157, the team tried to find the source of the vibration, but they were unsuccessful. Tony made the best of it and managed to stay in the top-20. Mike Bugarewicz chose to stay out during the next caution and Tony took over on the lead for a total of 12 Laps. Kyle Busch passed him on lap 230 and reassumed the lead. Tony went one lap down after his pit stop, but when the caution came out on lap 235 he was the lucky dog. Tony would finish in 12th racking up more points.

This weekend Tony takes on the ‘Monster Mile’ in his Code 3 Chevy at Dover in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism. Tony's last victory was at Dover in June 2013. I would love to see him back in victory lane Sunday afternoon. Tony has three wins and 11 top-5 finishes at Dover.

Tony Stewart is my favorite driver. I wish him continued success and happiness for the remainder of his farewell season and in all future endeavors.

May 7, 2016After a fresh start in Richmond following injury and a partially missed race due to safety concerns in Talladega, Tony fully took back his wheel for the rest of the season. Kansas has turned out some great results for Tony in the past and his confident start in Richmond and the team’s motivation from Ty Dillon’s finish of 6th in Talladega really put the team in a position to move forward.

Qualifying landed Tony in a 16th place spot to start at the intermediate sized track. This was a great track position, yet still with enough room to race up and get the car set in for the race. Tony fought some intense issues with his race car throughout the day but managed to enjoy working through them. He worked with Mike to get through an unpleasant vibration that haunted them throughout the day. Eventually, it worked its way out of the car and Tony just fought a tight car the rest of the day.

Tony worked with the car well around the track, including helping his track position with some special pit strategy. This all landed them with a 12th place finish at the end of the day which was another great step forward for the team. They wanted to keep growing, of course, and would have loved a top ten out of the day but Tony really wanted progress. He has slowly but surely been getting it.

May 1, 2016An early return wasn’t expected from Tony. I was hoping he would be back by June since a broken back isn’t something to mess with. Tony and his doctor’s felt comfortable putting him back in the car, with the exception of Talladega. As we all know, Talladega can come with some pretty horrific and hard wrecks that can make any healthy driver feel nervous.

Due to this, Tony planned on stepping out of the car following the first caution on race day. I felt pretty horrible for him because I knew it was killing him inside to step out of a race he knew could be his ticket to getting in the Chase. I am grateful that he realized it was what was best though.

Tony stayed out of harm's way until the first caution, over 50 laps into the race, with a quick switch on pit road that happened without a hitch. Tony got out of the car happy and confident that Ty Dillon would take the car up front. He was right.

Ty got the best out of the car, taking it up to a 6th place finish after a wild race. He managed to miss some major accidents at the end that cost some of his teammates good days on the books. Tony looks back and was grateful he dropped out of the race for his safety but couldn’t wait to get back in the following week at Kansas, as did I and the rest of his fans.

Confidence was high for the team and Tony - they were ready to start running with it.

April 24, 2016After another long hiatus due to injury, Tony finally returned to the track at Richmond. It was almost 3 months of watching races from the sidelines and he was over the moon about getting back into the car. Sadly, the day didn’t go as well as planned but Tony was one heck of a happy camper to be back doing what he loved.

The weekend started out less than stellar because qualifying was rained out. Since Tony hadn’t started a race yet this season, he was seeded in the 34th position to start the race, which on a short track can be hard to come back from. Eventually after getting back in the groove of things, Tony managed to get into the top twenty but faced the downfall of losing a lap due to a lack of cautions at the beginning of the race. May I remind everyone this was also Tony’s first race with a new crew chief as well which can throw some struggles of communication into the mix.

Regardless, the team walked away with a 19th place finish. Not bad for the first week following a broken back. Even though it may not have been the start us, the fans, or Tony really wanted, it was a great place to start from.​

February 25, 2016​“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy. Not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

Wednesday we were hit with one of the best kept secrets NASCAR has seen in recent history. Stewart-Haas Racing announced that they are changing to Ford for the 2017 season and they are leaving Chevy behind. This was beyond shocking to most fans, media and the sport as a whole. Tony is known as a loyal supporter of Chevy, even showing discontent with Joe Gibbs Racing back when he was a part of the team when they made their change to Toyota. Tony has always been a bowtie boy, making this announcement all the more shocking. This also severs the relationship between SHR and Hendrick Motorsports. SHR will now build their own chassis starting in 2017 and will purchase engines from Roush-Yates.

This seems to be a major step forward for the team in gaining their independence. Tony was stated as saying he felt like this change would allow them to “step out of the shadows” of Hendrick Motorsports. The team has built an amazing foundation with two championships under their belt and need to start to grow on their own.

This is huge for Ford, who now carries two of the four powerhouses in NASCAR holding SHR and Penske Racing, while JGR carries the Toyota banner and HMS as Chevy’s primary focus. They are very excited about this new partnership, especially because it creates a bond between Penske and SHR who hold 3 of the past 5 Sprint Cup championships.

I can’t say I am surprised this happened after I have walked away from the initial shock of the announcement. Something has seemed fishy with Chevy’s team relationships since Barney Visser, owner of Furniture Row Racing, called the manufacturer out last year. He alluded to the concept that the team wasn’t given proper attention and that a lot of the attention was focused on HMS and the single car team was left in the dust. They wanted to be with a manufacturer that gave them time and effort which they didn’t feel they were receiving from Chevy. Could this be a factor in SHR’s decision? Who knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if that played a role and that SHR was looking for more individual attention.

Tony’s point is a strong one too, that the team is looking to get out from the shadows. In Being Stewart Haas Racing Tony mentioned his interest in expanding to the Xfinity series to have a program to bring in young drivers and prepare them for the cup series. This would be a very logical move to Ford if that is on his mind. Roush-Fenway Racing hasn’t been on the cup radar in recent years but they have been heavy hitters in the Xfinity series. With up and coming drivers Bubba Wallace, Ryan Reed, and being the most recent Xfinity Champions with Chris Buescher they haven’t lacked talent or speed in that series. Again, this could have little or nothing to do with the switch over all but it is a connection my mind has wondered too.​ Overall, I think this is fair to say on the surface this is one of the most shocking announcements in NASCAR recently. Secrets don’t exist in the sport anymore but was this truly a secret? If you sit and put together pieces of the puzzle, maybe it isn’t as shocking as we may think.

February 23, 2016“Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold.” – Arthur Yorinks

Even with Tony’s absence heading into this past weekend’s Sprint Unlimited, I was pretty excited to see what was going to occur this weekend. Brian Vickers was announced as the interim driver for Daytona. Keep in mind, even without Tony in the driver’s seat, there was a new crew chief on top of the pit box, Mike Bugarewicz. This is where my interest will be over the next few months while Tony is healing. I want to see what Mike’s strategies tend to be, how his language grows over the radio and how well he interprets Brian’s thoughts and messages on the radio. Now, Daytona isn’t the best location for this since the spotter and driver are much closer friends at superspeedways but things seemed to run relatively smoothly this past weekend.

Brian ran pretty well in practices leading up to the Unlimited and seemed to be very happy and comfortable in the car. Starting out the first practice of the weekend, he jumped to the top of the leaderboard at the beginning of the session which was very promising. He finished 7th on the charts which was quite impressive for not being in a racecar since early in 2015 due to his medical setbacks. The unlimited was going fine until Brian was caught up in a pretty hard hit that ended the team’s day. Moving along through the week, practice stayed similar to the previous weeks.

For the Can-Am Duels, Brian stayed out of trouble and walked away with an 8th place finish in the second duel, setting him up to start 18th in the Daytona 500. The 500 started off really well, with Brian hanging on to the lead pack and drafting well. Everything was going ok until Joey Logano needed to let off the gas going into a turn which bottled up everyone behind him, sending Brian into a spin. Luckily, damage was minimal and the day continued forward. After some of Daytona’s notorious shuffling of positions, Brian was in the high line pack in the late laps of the race. Trying as hard as they could, the pack couldn’t get the side draft to pick up and pull the high line to catch up to Kenseth. As we all know, from there Denny made a last minute move, and managed to put up a fight with Martin Truex Jr after Matt Kenseth got punted out of the draft. Denny then managed to get Martin by 0.01 of a second. Brian ended up finishing 26th.

It was announced on Tuesday that Ty Dillon will be replacing Tony this weekend in Atlanta, as well as Phoenix and in California.

February 9, 2016“Don’t be discouraged by a slow start. It offers time and testing you need to lay the right foundation for success.”

2016. One final run. Well, partial run. Tony’s season is clearly going to be starting a little late but a great year is still very probable. Tony is expected to return in time for his final All-Star race, where he claimed victory most recently in 2009. Charlotte will be a pretty decent location for him to kick off his season, as it has always been a pretty good track for him. Tony’s key races this season will truly be at the Brickyard in July as well as Darlington in September. I think with the precedent that NASCAR has set as well, it is expected that Tony will receive a waiver to compete for the championship if he wins a race and is in the top 30 in points.

I would be surprised if Tony didn’t pull off a win or two this season. I know this sounds wild because he had obviously a weaker season last season only claiming 28th in points and no wins but a big factor is different this year – the package. This new package, Tony has even said, should make things much more suitable for him. The new package resembles his roots much more so he should have better car control.

Tony has also mentioned over media day in January that he has picked up a new diet and workout plan. He has lost a lot of weight and he also seems to be much happier mentally. He is walking around with his signature smile and sarcasm that reminds me of the Tony I have have come to love. This is the kind of Tony that performs at his highest so I wouldn’t be surprised if he shocks everyone with his performance in 2016, even though he will miss an expected 11 races.

We also are currently waiting on the announcement of who Tony’s replacement is and this could impact the seasons well. Luckily with Tony being a co-owner of Stewart Haas Racing, he will have a big say in this. This driver will be a key to getting proper notes for later in the season when we return to the races Tony will miss. The new package still isn’t exactly like things we have done before, so good notes will be a must.

One last major factor sits in the hands of Mike Bugarewicz. Tony’s new crew chief has proven himself in the engineer position as he has been on the pit box for Tony’s teammate, Kevin Harvick, who has notoriously had amazing seasons in the two seasons he has been at SHR. This will be a transition for Bugarewicz since he will gain new responsibilities and will have to branch beyond the engineering aspect of the car. Hopefully with the interim driver he can develop his dialect over the radio so there is an easier and hopefully quicker transition when Tony does get in the car.​Overall, I am definitely not sitting on the train of some fans who are thinking this season is a loss. I firmly believe that this season could be amazing for Tony if he heals correctly and pieces of the puzzle fall together correctly. Tony knows what he is doing and I trust the championship caliber driver within him. That can only help with the delayed start, new faces on the team and new package under the hood. I just ask for everyone to trust and believe in Tony. To think he will go out without a few sparks flying would be an understatement of the Tony we have come to know over the past two decades.

February 4, 2016“You deserve recovery. You deserve to be at peace. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be carefree.” -Unknown

So here we are again. Tony is in a position I was hoping he would never face until the 2017 Daytona 500. He will be on the sidelines. Sadly, this isn’t in the bliss of retirement but due to injury once again. No last chance at the 500, which I know is crushing him inside. The whole purpose of Tony coming back in 2016 was to check off the 500 and the Lady in Black. I can only hope and pray his recovery from this terrible injury will go well and he is back in time to have one last shot at Darlington.

For those of you not currently aware, Tony suffered an injury in California on January 31. He was out having some fun with friends in some sand dunes, caught the lip of a hill and bottomed out. This caused his first lumbar (L1) vertebra to suffer a burst fracture. He was taken to the hospital and further transported back to North Carolina earlier this week and had surgery on Wednesday to repair the injury. The team has given no time table for Tony’s return but according to a doctor that Fox Sports 1’s NASCAR Race Hub had on the show Thursday we are looking at at least 2-3 months of recovery time while Tony is strapped in a brace.

This is beyond devastating to me as a fan and I cannot imagine how hard it is for Tony. His friends are reporting him to be in great spirits but I am sure deep down he is incredibly disappointed. Tony’s heart pumps race fuel. This is his world and for some reason the good lord has decided against him being in the car once again. Sometimes I don’t understand why things happen. I don’t think Tony does either. Things do happen though and instead of wallowing in my sorrows, a new countdown has begun.

I may not be able to put a date of return on it right now but I know that day does exist. As the team stated, he fully plans on getting back in the car. I couldn’t see him not getting back in the car unless the doctor put his life on the table. So maybe my season won’t begin at Daytona and I have to set the dreams of 2016 on the side burner for now. That is ok. I know my Tony. He is going to come back with a special fire, something no other driver will more than likely ever bring to their seat. We may not think he has anything to prove but I think he feels he does. Not having a 2017 to look forward too is going to make the fire inside him grow and I am beyond sure Smoke will rise whenever his return is to happen.